Personal Finance

“Just because someone shares something on Facebook, doesn’t mean they’ve checked out the group,” Borochoff said. And while taxes might not be at the forefront of your mind right now, remember that charitable donations are tax-deductible if you itemize your return instead of taking the standard deduction, so keep your receipts. Among the well-known groups

Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images Moving boxes sit stacked outside of a home in Princeton, Illinois. The simplest way is to classify your belongings into four separate categories: keep, donate, dispose and sell, according to Pickett. “That starts to crystallize the process,” she said. She cautions those cleaning house to lower their expectations

For 53-year-old Mavis Wanczyk, the newly minted winner of Wednesday night’s $758.7 million Powerball jackpot drawing, life is about to get crazy. And that might be putting it mildly. “She better get ready. She’s going to be hit up for investment opportunities, charity requests, even people she knows are going to come to her,” said

Fidelity’s calculations include premiums, cost-sharing provisions and out-of-pocket costs associated with Medicare parts A, B and D — but does not include other health expenses such as over-the-counter medications, dental services and long-term care. “Estimates are calculated for ‘average’ retirees, but may be more or less depending on actual health status, area of residence and

The 18-month postponement request was outlined in a court brief filed Wednesday in Minnesota related to a lawsuit the Labor Department is a party to. If the delay is approved by the Office of Management and Budget, the effective date for complying with the rule’s remaining provisions would be pushed out to July 1, 2019,

Parents and students are becoming increasingly cost-conscious, according to Edward Fiske, author of the “Fiske Guide to Colleges 2018.” At the same time, parents know that if they’re going to pour lots of money into higher education, they want the best education possible for their child, within their financial limits. Years ago, a student who

“Unfortunately, too many people go about it the other way, where they start shopping, they fall in love with a house and then they’re pulling strings to see how they can afford it,” he said. “That’s not a recipe for success.” Make sure your credit is in good shape and pay down your debt. That

For consumers, more convenience could eventually come at a higher cost. “Retailers have always used door-buster prices to get people in the stores so they can buy more,” Sakraida said. While grocery stores may juice the discounts on some items, they will keep prices steady on others in an attempt to maintain their razor-thin margins.

Fathers shape their children’s financial life. To that point, 56 percent of people said their fathers influenced their retirement savings and 62 percent said their retirement plans are similar to their dads’ strategy, according to a John Hancock Retirement Services survey of 1,007 Americans adults conducted in late April. Paternal influence cuts both ways. A

Careers switchers often make the mistake of not adjusting their market value accordingly and not appropriately anchoring their new numbers in compensation conversations with their potential employers, said Rachel Kim, a senior manager of the career advisory board at online lender SoFi. “Your professional market value is not a fixed number – it is one

Perhaps it was preordained that David Frankel would become a mortgage banker. His memories of his first home as a child in Toronto are hazy, but he knew enough back then to recall it now as “semidetached,” as if “semiattached” might compromise the appraisal or affect the perception of a buyer. When he was 5

Hit the brakes before you contact a debt settlement company to grapple with your student loans — some may be in hotter water than you are. NerdWallet, a personal finance website, compiled a watch list of 130 entities, representing approximately 100 companies, that provide debt management and consolidation services for student loan borrowers. In all,

Still, public schools are worth a closer look as you assess which colleges are affordable for your family. Even if you don’t qualify for the new scholarship program, New York’s average in-state tuition of $7,710 for the 2016-17 academic year makes it the 12th-cheapest nationwide, based on data from the College Board. If you’re out

But lies are likely to catch up with you, especially if you have to file a claim. State laws vary, but if the lie is material to your claim, the insurer could deny you coverage and even cancel your policy, Peter Kochenburger, deputy director of the University of Connecticut’s Insurance Law Center, told CNBC. You

About 44 percent of households have more vehicles than workers, and 44 percent of households have as many vehicles as workers. If you and your spouse’s schedules are similar enough, it is worth dropping from a two to one car household, said Kyle Winkfield, managing partner of the wealth management firm O’Dell, Winkfield, Roseman and

Summer’s here, and that means plenty of opportunity — and risk — for beach-house owners who want to rent out their dwellings. Reservations at Airbnb are up sharply year-over-year for beachside destinations, in the U.S. and abroad. Havana, Cuba — where you can rent a swanky seaside home for $528 a night — has seen

Make sure your trusted family member or friend has the contact details for your financial team. Ideally, you can arrange a meeting between them well before there’s a need, Schmitt said. That helps set guidelines for your trusted contact’s involvement and can make both parties feel comfortable reaching out with concerns. Without that prior interaction,

Forget frequent flier miles, last-minute getaways and even road trips. Nearly half of Americans say they won’t be taking a vacation this summer, mostly because they can’t afford it, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The new AP-NORC survey, conducted in May, said 43 percent of Americans